Southampton head coach Tonda Eckert initiated the club’s spying operation on rival teams, according to newly published documents from an English Football League arbitration panel.
The documents reveal that an intern tasked with recording opponent training sessions was told via WhatsApp that the “manager loved it” after completing his first assignment.
Southampton were expelled from the Championship playoffs last month after being found to have spied on Oxford United, Ipswich and Middlesbrough during the season.
Eckert remains under investigation by the Football Association, and the written reasons behind the panel’s rejection of the club’s appeal add significant weight to the case against him.
The first instance of spying occurred before Southampton’s Boxing Day fixture against Oxford, with the panel noting that “Mr Eckert asked if someone could go to observe the Oxford training session to see how they were lining up and whether a particular player was fit to play,” in reference to Cameron Brannagan.
An analyst identified an intern to carry out the task, and in written evidence the intern said he “didn’t really have an option” and “wasn’t provided an opportunity to say no.”
After observing two Oxford training sessions, the intern sent “updates, photographs and videos” back to the club “concerning matters such as tactical shape and player selection.”
Eckert said he did not watch footage from the sessions but did have a phone conversation with the intern afterwards, while an analysis team member messaged the intern: “Try and make out as much as you can please. You legend. Manager loved it.”
In April, the intern was asked to surveil Ipswich while they trained at the ground of nearby Eastleigh, but he refused, with a colleague telling him “the boss is adamant that someone needs to go.”
An academy analyst was chosen instead and recorded footage of the session, with Eckert telling the commission he had been made aware of the footage two hours before kick-off and believed it had been recorded on Eastleigh’s CCTV.
The third instance involved Middlesbrough, and the original intern agreed to the assignment but later argued he feared for his job had he declined.
The intern was also criticised by Eckert for not flying up immediately upon accepting the Middlesbrough assignment, according to the panel’s written findings.
The operation unravelled after the intern was caught filming a Middlesbrough training session, and he learned of the accusations made against the club while travelling home on the train.
Eckert told the commission regarding the Middlesbrough footage: “The videos were of poor quality, taken from far distance and so, they were of no benefit to him.”
Southampton’s appeal against their playoff expulsion and a four-point deduction for next season’s Championship was rejected, with the panel finding the club had gained sporting advantage from their actions, while the FA’s investigation is continuing.